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Acer TM8006LMi Partitions?

post #1 of 8
2/8/05 at 10:19pm
Thread Starter 
Had my Acer Travelmate 8006LMi delivered to me this morning, very impressed with it so far, nice and quiet but plenty speedy.

Starting to look into how it's set up before I bung all my data and mail onto it. Looking in disk management it's got 3 partitions:

C: ACER 35.71Gb, system
D: ACERDATA 35.88Gb
PQSERVICE 2.93Gb, eisa config

I'm guessing the PQSERVICE partition has got some recovery files loaded onto it (same as the recovery cds?).

If I format it as one large partition, then use the recovery CDs, will that recreate the partitions or will it just install it as one large partition?

Also from what I've found on the board so far, I'm gonna need a standard XP Pro CD to install as NTFS from scratch? What's the legal status with making a copy of a friends? Would a plain OEM copy work using the cd key from the bottom of the laptop?

Thanks in advance, any questions on the laptop shout them out and I'll have a go at answering :-)
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post #2 of 8
2/10/05 at 11:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CrispyUK
Starting to look into how it's set up before I bung all my data and mail onto it. Looking in disk management it's got 3 partitions:

C: ACER 35.71Gb, system
D: ACERDATA 35.88Gb
PQSERVICE 2.93Gb, eisa config

I'm guessing the PQSERVICE partition has got some recovery files loaded onto it (same as the recovery cds?).
That’s correct. Acer calls the allocated space on your hard drive D2D (Disk to Disk) Recovery and allows you to recover your windows without using a CD (It’s in your manual or C:\book; probably page 50ish). Fancy however, that if you are in the ‘States, and you want to reload your OS, you still have to use the recover CD’s. I noticed it wasn’t working without the CDs and a “tech” on Acer’s phone support line confirmed it. This was on a TM4000 so perhaps all the newer TM models have D2D working.

Quote:
Also from what I've found on the board so far, I'm gonna need a standard XP Pro CD to install as NTFS from scratch? What's the legal status with making a copy of a friends? Would a plain OEM copy work using the cd key from the bottom of the laptop?
I attempted to do just that with my TM4000. I was so pissed off that Acer had the OS partition and recovery images formatted in FAT32. A Windows XP installation from a standard Windows XP CD will not accept the cd key from the bottom of the laptop. If you use a program like Everest Home, you can see that your actual windows install uses a different CD key than what’s on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop. This key won’t work either. Your options are limited as far as this goes. You can either convert the drive to NTFS or buy another OS. My university offers their engineering students XP Pro at a ridiculously low price and I ultimately went with that.
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post #3 of 8
8/15/05 at 7:57pm

FAT32 Partition on Acer

I just bought a new 4000. I was disturbed also to find it used FAT32. There is an easy solution and you do not have to slick your hard drive. Windows has a utility called CONVERT. In order to use it go to the command prompt and use the following to execute the command:

C:\>CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs

You can enter any drive letter after "CONVERT" to convert other drives. One note: When you enter the command for the C: drive a warning appears saying that it has to dismount the drive and if a dismount is forced all handles will be invalid. When it asks if you want to proceed say no and after another question or two it will tell you that the conversion will happen for C: the next time the computer is rebooted.

I had no isues with this at all. Within 10 minutes I had NTFS on my C and D drives. Cheers.
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post #4 of 8
9/10/05 at 12:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcbart
I just bought a new 4000. I was disturbed also to find it used FAT32. There is an easy solution and you do not have to slick your hard drive. Windows has a utility called CONVERT. In order to use it go to the command prompt and use the following to execute the command:

C:\>CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs

You can enter any drive letter after "CONVERT" to convert other drives. One note: When you enter the command for the C: drive a warning appears saying that it has to dismount the drive and if a dismount is forced all handles will be invalid. When it asks if you want to proceed say no and after another question or two it will tell you that the conversion will happen for C: the next time the computer is rebooted.

I had no isues with this at all. Within 10 minutes I had NTFS on my C and D drives. Cheers.
hello dcbart. reading your post, you had ntfs on both c and d drives. i just got my ferrari 4002 and to my amazement it indeed had two drives. does this mean you have to convert both drives one after the other? what if you delete the d drive? what will be the effect of such a move?

thanks for your reply..

best regards
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post #5 of 8
9/10/05 at 4:44pm
I have a TM8104. I tried to install XP and as everyone says I could not use the key. During the insalltion I deleted all the paritions and created only one smallish one (25Gb). I ten let the windows XP installer format it in NTFS. I exited the XP installer (leaving 60+Gb unformatted) and used the recovery discs to reload XP.
When It had finished I had everything on the smaller partiton (FAT32 BTW). I then used XP to format the larger partiton in NTFS.
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post #6 of 8
9/10/05 at 5:49pm
i did about the same thing as the poster above, but now how do i use the recovery discs to reload xp? do i just pop it in and restart it? (the recovery discs are disk 1 out of 2 and disc 2 out of 2 right?)
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post #7 of 8
2/24/06 at 11:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcbart
C:\>CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs

You can enter any drive letter after "CONVERT" to convert other drives. One note: When you enter the command for the C: drive a warning appears saying that it has to dismount the drive and if a dismount is forced all handles will be invalid. When it asks if you want to proceed say no and after another question or two it will tell you that the conversion will happen for C: the next time the computer is rebooted.
Was installing everything (from the recovery DVD) again on my TM 8104, then converted C to NTFS but when I.. uh.. was trying to FORMAT D at the command prompt and when it asked the same question........"the drive D has to be dismounted before formatting - and if a dismount is forced all handles will be invalid."
instead of NO - I said YES and then formatted D

1.) so does this effect anything next time when I turn on the laptop or is it back to "normal"

2) what if I change the D also to NTFS
a) will D2D recovery work
b) will recovery DVD work

3.) I have a spare copy of Ghost 9.0 - does it work in NTFS if I install it.
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post #8 of 8
2/25/06 at 8:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by byd
i did about the same thing as the poster above, but now how do i use the recovery discs to reload xp? do i just pop it in and restart it? (the recovery discs are disk 1 out of 2 and disc 2 out of 2 right?)

If you use the 'Factory default' disks to reload XP they will set you back to a FAT32 patition !.

After convertng the C: partition to NTFS you need to produce another set of 'Restore' disks (using eRecover)which will allow 'restore' of C: as NTFS.

I would advise new users not to rush into restructuring their disks. The Acer recovery software is there to assist you.(It's a adaptation of Ghost). Using 'friend's' copies of XP is an 'no no' and will invalidate you warranty besides 'screwing-up' your sytems. RTFM
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